Mario Tennis Hotshots
Mario Tennis Hotshots is the ninth original sports game in the Mario Tennis series, following Mario Tennis Aces. The game is set to release for the Nintendo Switch and was developed by Camelot Software Planning in cooperation with Candy Dynamics. The gameplay matches the traditional style of tennis with characters, environments, and gimmicks taken from the Mario series. Gameplay The gameplay is remarkably similar to that of Mario Tennis Aces, and as such, there are five basic types of shots the player character can use to hit the ball: the Topspin, Slice, Flat, Lob, and Drop Shot. ---- The Topspin is a quick, high shot that spins forward. A Max Charge Shot will increase the ball's speed and will also knock opponents back upon contact with the racket. Topspins can be used by pressing or holding . The Slice, in contrast, is a low shot with backspin that lacks in speed. A Max Charge Shot will give the ball a heavy curve while flying to the other side of the court. Slices can be used by pressing or holding . The Flat has the highest speed of any of the shots and goes straight across the court. A Max Charge Shot will simply make the ball move faster. In a Zone Match, Star Points will make any form of a Flat act as an instant Charge Shot. Flats can be used by pressing or holding . The Lob is the highest but slowest shot, aiming towards the back of the court. A Max Charge Shot will speed the ball up to the speed of a Slice. Lobs can be used by pressing , then pressing or holding . Finally, the Drop Shot is the opposite, heading towards the front of the court at a low height and speed. A Max Charge Shot will make the ball drop almost instantly upon touching the ground. Drop Shots can be used by pressing , then pressing or holding . ---- The scoring system of the game is identical to that of traditional tennis. Both sides of the court start out with zero points each (called Love) and gain points whenever the opponent misses a ball that was hit into their side of the court. From love, the score goes up to 15, then 30, then 40. When another point is won after 40, the game is won. However, if both sides have a score of 40, they are put in a deuce. Either player then needs to get two points in a row to win, the first of which is known as the advantage. If both sides score one point, they are both reset to the state of deuce. One side wins a set if they win two games and will win the match after winning the majority of the amount of sets required to win. If, by the end of the match, both sides of the court have won the same amount of sets, they will play a tiebreaker round in which each point only counts as one point, and the person who reaches seven points first is the winner. The game has three standard modes of play which almost all other modes are centered around. The first type of match is a Zone Match, which utilizes mechanics that Aces introduced. In this type of match, players slowly fill up a gauge whenever they hit the ball. They can fill up their gauge faster by use of well-timed Trick Shots. Special spots on the ground allow players to perform a Zone Shot while using up their gauge, allowing players to use gyro control aiming to hit a shot. Opponents can block Zone Shots with a Block, but if they don't time the block correctly, their racket will take damage. To counter this, they can also utilize Zone Speed, using their gauge to reach the ball by slowing down time for everything around them before the ball exits the court. Maxing out a gauge allows a player to use a Special Shot, a much more powerful version of a Zone Shot that can break the opponent's racket instantly. If a racket takes too much damage from Zone Shots, it will break as well. Players have a set amount of rackets and a set amount of health points for each racket; breaking one racket will instantly give the other side a point, and breaking all of their rackets will cause them to instantly forfeit the set. The other two modes of play are Item Matches and Simple Matches; Item Matches grant players special items throughout when hitting item boxes while Simple Matches have no gimmicks except for those found in courts. Story Mode In Story Mode, the Mario cast has come to the Breakpoint Isles for a relaxing vacation only to be interrupted by the Broodals, who return from Super Mario Odyssey. The Broodals are commanded by Madame Broode to take over each of the four islands for an unknown reason. Mario sets out to figure out why Madame Broode is attempting to take the Isles over, but he is separated from the rest of the crew after the Broodals attack. Though this Story Mode is mechanically similar to the Adventure Mode of Mario Tennis Aces, Mario and other playable characters can now explore the map freely and enter smaller areas. The player can visit the home of each of the courts on the map and interact with non-playable characters and items in a similar fashion to Mario Super Sluggers. The story progresses through the missions given by NPCs, and side missions can unlock bonus content. Mario and other characters can level up in this mode as well. Also like the Mario series' baseball spin-offs, other characters are unlocked by completing certain challenges while facing off against them, but unlocking other characters is not required to progress. The missions the player have to go through consist of matches with unique rules, standard matches of each type, small challenges, minigames, and more. There are also a number of boss fights in this mode. Completing the Story Mode unlocks the Star Story Mode in which characters unlocked in the main story transfer over with the same level as the regular Story Mode, but the player can now use them as Star characters, which power them up a bit. This mode is a continuation of the main story after it's been completed and has more difficult missions for players to complete. Characters Mario Tennis Hotshots has an amount of playable characters, some of which have to be unlocked through various methods. Each character has a unique playstyle and stats, but each has one of six specific character-types attached to them to describe the basics of how they play. * characters have basic stats with no particular advantages or disadvantages. * characters move slower than other characters, but they have powerful shots that give the ball more speed. * characters tend to have good reach but worse agility. * characters typically have good accuracy and skill with better forward spin but lack in power. * characters have higher movement speed and better backspin but have little power. * characters have varying stats but have much more curve on the ball than other characters. Default Unlockable Courts Default Tournaments TBA Bosses TBA Minigames Blaster Rally In Blaster Rally, the player has to keep a rally going while Bullet Blasters in the middle of the court shoot obstacles at the player. Obstacles include standard Bullet Bills, which fly straight forward, Bull's-Eye Bills, which fly towards the direction of the player before exploding, Green Shells, which are fired in a straight line toward the player, Bob-ombs, which go to one corner and detonate, Bananas, which stay on the court until hit by the player or another obstacle, Boomerangs, which fire straight forward then fly back, and small Unchained Chomps, which chase the ball until the player knocks them away. Rarely, a slow Banzai Bill that blocks half the court may be fired. Getting hit by an obstacle will cause the player to spin out for a second. Helpful items like coins and a Buzzy Beetle Shell that protects the player from one hit can pop out rarely. The game has two multiplayer modes, a co-op mode in which players must keep a rally going while both dodging obstacles, and a versus mode in which players compete in a normal match while avoiding them. This minigame has five difficulty settings and an endless mode. Each difficulty setting (except for the easiest, which is unlocked by default) is unlocked by completing the previous setting. The easiest difficulty is Cannonball, in which players have to get a rally of 30 shots with a minimal amount of obstacles. The next difficulty is Bullet Bill, which requires a rally of 50 to progress and increases the amount of obstacles. The next setting, Torpedo Ted, also asks players to reach a rally of 50 but makes the obstacles more difficult. Bull's-Eye Bill is the fourth setting and requires the player to rally up to 75 hits while dodging increasingly more difficult obstacles. The last setting is called Banzai Bill, and the player has to get a rally of 100 whilst obstacles increase in difficulty over time (similar to the fourth setting, but at a faster rate) to succeed. The endless mode is unlocked upon completion of the Bull's-Eye Bill difficulty setting. Trivia *Credit to for the artwork of Pauline in her tennis outfit! 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